Master Big Data: SAP Delivers the Database of the 21st Century An Aviation Week/SAP White Paper
Master Big Data: SAP Delivers the Database of the 21st Century The aerospace and defense (A&D) industry deals with a large and ever-increasing volume of information so much, in fact, that it has acquired a nickname: Big Data. The growth of data in A&D has been triggered by a number of factors: the thousands of components and their variants that OEMs and prime contractors manufacture; the launch of new e-enabled aircraft with onboard sensors emitting operational, performance and diagnostic data; cradle-to-grave track-and-trace requirements for aerospace components; program lifecycles that last several decades or more; global supply chains, many of which are necessary to meet offsets and other contractual requirements; regulatory rules that affect operations at home and abroad; and the growing business of aftermarket sales and service. With the amount of information growing exponentially across all industrial sectors, SAP has developed a groundbreaking in-memory computing platform that gives companies the means to accurately manage, interpret and analyze Big Data in real time. Called SAP HANA, the product takes advantage of innovations in both software and hardware, and the results speak for themselves. Many times SAP HANA delivers a performance boost that is 1,000-10,000 times faster than a traditional disk-based relational database. Customers across various industries are already leveraging SAP HANA to transform their businesses and are now getting answers to business questions that were never thought possible to ask. And the range of applications goes from real-time genome sequencing for more precise cancer treatments to passenger recovery planning for airlines. SAP HANA is unlike any other database or data management solution on the market in its ability to combine transactional (OLTP) and analytical (OLAP) capabilities into one system. And by doing so, it both simplifies the overall data management architecture and radically improves it through the use of in-memory technology. Historically, transactional and analytical data has always resided in two separate databases, with the analytical data represented as an aggregated view of the total dataset and delayed by weekly or sometimes monthly batch-jobs. Due to the speed of SAP HANA, analysis can now be done directly on the granular data without the need to pre-build analytical views. This gives the end user the ability to analyze the business on a more granular level and to ask new questions without having to go to the IT department with a request for another predefined report or dashboard. But perhaps even more important is that SAP HANA provides the ability to build radically new solutions that could never have been built before. First of all, SAP HANA is not just a database, but also an in-memory computing platform capable of performing complex calculations, functions and data-intensive operations directly on the data without requiring time-consuming and costly movements of data between the database and applications. This is part of the secret sauce. Secondly, it gives appli- 2
cation developers the ability to natively embed these powerful analytical capabilities into any business solution. Imagine how much better decisions a business planner could make if the business planning solution would leverage all the mountains of data - to analyze, simulate and predict. SAP is in the process of leveraging this powerful capability across its entire solution portfolio and it is leaving the door open for anybody else to do the same. SAP is With the amount of information challenging themselves and the A&D industry to identify problems that could not have been solved before. SAP has even set growing exponentially across all up a dedicated team with PhD level expertise in statistics and industrial sectors, SAP HANA has advanced analytics, called the SAP PIO (Performance and Insight Optimization) team to tackle these difficult problems. developed a groundbreaking inmemory computing platform that Several A&D companies are already phasing in SAP HANA and capitalizing on its benefits. One example is Honeywell gives companies the means to accurately manage, interpret and ana- Aerospace, which is using SAP HANA for internal financial reporting requirements. Honeywell acquired SAP HANA, along with a set of SAP tools to analyze business data, late in lyze Big Data in real time. 2011 and began deploying the system throughout the company in early 2012. To date, SAP HANA is 90%in place at 80- plus global sites, says David Jarvis, Honeywell s chief information officer, and will be 100% deployed in 2013. Ninety percent of our revenue is on this system today, he adds. Jarvis and colleague Carl Esposito, vice president of marketing and product management, are enthusiastic about the speed and depth of data that Honeywell Aerospace has been able to mine from SAP HANA, all in real time. From an information technology perspective, says Esposito, this is clearly transformational. Among the tasks the company performs with SAP HANA is analysis of data regarding product lines and markets. This enables managers to develop regional and geographic perspectives about sales and application trends and develop strategies that support growth around the world. SAP HANA allows us to get ahead of customer needs, says Esposito. In high-growth areas we look at local information and at product information by region and correlate the data. The level of granularity is such that we can use the tool to dig deep and better understand customer trends and how to stay ahead of them. All of the data, he notes, is in the can, meaning it is consolidated in one location, making it far simpler to access than if the data were in a whole bunch of cans (a reference to how legacy systems handle data). Esposito and Jarvis are also sold on the real-time aspect of data access with SAP HANA. We don t have to wait for answers, Jarvis remarks. He notes that when analyzing data with legacy systems, sometimes my business partners would ask questions and then would have forgotten all about them by the time we got the answers. In fact, everything about data analysis with SAP HANA is on a fast track. Jarvis remarks that Honeywell Aerospace once launched a similar internal reporting process using traditional data systems. It took 15 to 18 months to build an environment and create reports. The initial SAP HANA project was similar in complexity 3
Master Big Data: SAP Delivers the Database of the 21st Century and scope, he says, but was set up in six to eight months less than half the time and is delivering richer, faster data. Data from SAP HANA is now accessed through desktop computers at Honeywell Aerospace, although Jarvis says it will eventually be available on Apple ipads, at which point the user experience will be expanded. Mobile access to SAP HANA-generated business intelligence is part of the application roadmap for the system. For now, a cadre of executives at Honeywell Aerospace has access to SAP HANA, but Jarvis sees this changing in the near future when many more people, including shop-floor personnel with security clearance, will be using the system. SAP HANA is a management tool at this stage, but when its penetration increases [throughout the organization], the financial return from the granular information it provides will aggregate, he remarks. SAP HANA s capabilities are consistent with the computing trend of consolidating data in one location to improve user access and make information far more manageable and relevant than when dispersed among legacy systems. This real-time, collaborative analysis of data reduces the potential for inaccurate, obsolete or missing information, thereby increasing the accuracy of decisions and other actions by users. We are trying to make this a self-service model, says Jarvis, where business users like Carl and others will be able to do their own queries and run their own reports. That is when SAP HANA will become transformational. Ultimately, SAP HANA is about understanding how our business is evolving and how we can serve customers around the world faster and more efficiently, says Esposito. In an environment where defense contractors are being asked to cut costs, and with sequestration in the U.S. and cutbacks in many other countries looming, managers are increasingly searching for ways to remain competitive and profitable in the lean years that many see on the horizon. For commercial aerospace manufacturers, the challenge is instead to increase production rates to deliver against record backlogs. Making operations more efficient and productive will be important ways of achieving either of these goals. By enabling A&D companies to offer entirely new forms of revenue-generating services and solutions for their customers, SAP HANA s value can be potentially even more significant as a top-line growth generator. SAP HANA enables A&D companies to analyze massive quantities of performance and sensor data in real-time for DOD and airline customers and to offer services to increase reliability and reduce maintenance costs for their aircraft and military assets. And A&D companies can leverage the power of SAP HANA to build new solutions for the government to guard against cybersecurity threats, process intelligence from C4ISR applications, and detect fraud, waste and abuse. The common denominator in all of these areas is the ability to accelerate the cycle times for accessing, analyzing and acting on Big Data problems. A&D companies that upgrade their information systems will be able to manage Big Data effectively, in effect making it an ally in the battle for market share and growth. SAP believes 4
that SAP HANA will provide the computing power and analytical capabilities necessary to meet these challenges and help maintain a competitive advantage. SAP HANA s capabilities are consistent with the computing trend of consolidating data in one location to improve user access and make information far more manageable and relevant than when dispersed among legacy systems. This real-time, collaborative analysis of data reduces the potential for inaccurate, obsolete or missing information, thereby increasing the accuracy of decisions and other actions by users. Companies that have deployed SAP HANA are seeing benefits in reduced cost of ownership as a result of eliminating the labor-intensive tasks of dealing with the limitations of traditional database systems. These tasks, which are no longer required with SAP HANA, have included aggregating and staging data, producing one-off custom reports, and maintaining the myriad disparate data-warehouse systems and their interfaces, not to mention the multi-hour wait times for results endured by the business users. SAP HANA and In-Memory Computing replace conventional disk-based data systems, distributed computing processes and relational databases, which are inadequate for managing Big Data. Chief among the problems with these legacy systems are the decentralized acquisition and storage of data and the inability to process and access information in a timely and collaborative manner. When A&D users rely on legacy systems, they face many challenges. These include: blind spots in data analysis, which cause companies to react slowly to trends and opportunities, or miss them altogether; developing inaccurate business forecasts and strategies; and lagging in the implementation of regulations and quality specifications throughout extended and often global supply chains. Ultimately, reliance on legacy computing systems will impact a company s competitive edge by impeding its ability to make rapid decisions based on actionable real-time data. Importantly, the wealth of data generated by SAP HANA creates insight by exposing decision-makers and strategists to operational patterns that raise questions or reveal opportunities not previously considered. This alerts companies to emerging market trends and other factors for exploitation ahead of competitors and can have a transformative effect on business planning. SAP HANA therefore confers an important advantage when it comes to how A&D companies strategize, target opportunities, allocate resources and execute business decisions. Moreover, it serves as a platform for delivering completely new forms of value to their customers. One interesting new form of business value that SAP HANA makes possible is predictive analytics against vast volumes of data in real time. With predictive algorithms deeply embedded in the SAP HANA platform and extended into focused business applications and business intelligence content, companies are now mining both structured and unstructured data (i.e., text, documents, social media) for insights about the future. By anticipat- 5
Master Big Data: SAP Delivers the Database of the 21st Century ing component failure rates, for instance, A&D companies are now able to optimize maintenance schedules and demand planning for spare parts, a notoriously volatile scenario using conventional deterministic approaches. SAP HANA is scalable to company size. SAP supplies versions that meet the needs of all A&D companies, from the largest OEMs to small component suppliers. For more information about SAP HANA, visit www.experiencehana.com SAP Aerospace and Defense SAP partners with leading aerospace and defense companies to help them address head on the challenges of commercial production rate acceleration, reduced defense funding and increased globalization. SAP for Aerospace and Defense software solutions help companies design and build high-quality complex products, create and manage responsive supply networks, and deliver profitable aftermarket services. For more information go to: http://www.sap.com/campaigns/2012_10_aerospace-defense/index.epx 6